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My new Jackie Brown Fowler

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Totez

32 Cal.
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
21
Reaction score
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Good day everyone.

Wall of text ahead!

As some of you know I was looking a while back for an affordable fowler to enter the world of flintlock shooting and get into rev war reenactment. After asking around, a few members suggested I contact Jackie Brown as he makes a decent product at an affordable price.

Well I shot him an email on May 18th and he got back to me the same evening.

I basically explained that I was in the market for a 28 gauge fowler that wouldn't break the bank. I showed him a couple of images of things I liked from Track of the Wolf and he said he would be happy to make what I wanted and would do it for $800 shipped to my door and it would be done in about 3 weeks.

"Hmmmmm." :hmm: methinks to myself. "Three weeks is an AWFUL short time for a build..."

Knowing from many accounts of other people who have done business with Jackie that this was likely a gross understatement of the time it will take I figured what the heck. I sent a $250 down payment along with a few bits of double-checking that he knows exactly what I want and Jackie got to work.

A few weeks go by and I patiently wait. June 9th rolls around and, knowing full well that there is a 90% chance that my fowler is not done, I send Jackie an email just to check up on things and reaffirm that he had my shipping address (as I wasn't sure I had sent it to him the first time.)

Jackie very pleasantly informs he he got the address and that all is going well. A few delays but he has my barrel ordered and is picking it up that day. He expects to be finished by the weekend.

Great! I continue to wait patiently. :)

June 30th rolls around (two weekends later) and I shoot Jackie another very short quick email, if he had the time, for any news of the build and apologizing for asking so frequently.

Jackie responds a few days later apologizing for the delay in responding. He said there was a death in his sister's family and he was running behind. Should be out early next week.

I reply my condolences and thank him for again taking the time to reply.

July 16th rolls around (two weeks later) and I again send a brief email.

Jackie,

Good morning, just checking in for any updates. Hope all is well in your world!

-Kevin

I'm feeling bad at this point because I'm feeling like I'm very impatient and every time I send him an email is time I'm taking away from his building of mine and potentially other guns. I knew from the get-go the time to build would be longer than his quote so I'm trying very hard to be as polite as possible lol.

Jackie responds promptly that he had to rebuild a broken gun that came back to him. Mine is almost done and wont be long.

A giddy feeling wells up inside of me :grin:

The next day Jackie emails me again:

Hi Kevin,
I have your little 28 ga. smoothbore assembled and now taken apart for finishing. I should have the finishing done tomorrow afternoon or Saturday morning. It will be ready to ship early Monday morning by Priority mail. If you want to send the remainder of the payment sometime by Monday morning, we'll be good to go. If you use my Paypal account please don't mention gun or firearm of any kind. LOL Had a customer do that this morning and had gun written all over it. I hope they don't catch it.

I am attaching some pics I took before taking it apart. Thanks,
Jackie

Jackie provides three pictures:
G6UwhxW.jpg

mvvvmMA.jpg

uUiiaZD.jpg


OoOoOoH! I was so giddy and excited at this poi.... wait a minute.... whats that on the stock.... and why is the trigger guard like that.... and why is the fittings all iron in stead of brass...

That is a smooth rifle.... This is nothing like what I requested!

Franticly I type an email up and send it to Jackie explaining that this was not at all what I had requested and re-sending the details and pictures of what I originally sent and wanted.

I'm sweating bullets in this point thinking this is going to add tons of time to my build with him having to essentially redo everything.

A few emails back and forth of him apologizing and me finding more stuff wrong that I hadn't picked up on in my haste to get an email to him as quick as possibly with the errors and Jackie basically says he made a mistake and will fix everything. He "fell asleep mid stream" as he put it.

No problem here - he will fix it up as I requested and no harm no foul.

July 21st rolls around and Jackie sends me another email with the proper fowler and says he will have it done in a day or two.

Come July 27th and Jackie sends me another email saying that everything is done but he had an unexpected trip come up and he would have the gun shipped out by the following tuesday.

Unfortunately that same evening that I read that email I had the pleasure of driving by a construction zone that someone had so generously decided to pour nails and assorted other debris across the road. It was pitch black (no street lights at this part) and I didn't stand a chance of seeing the minefield letalone avoid it. I lost all four tires that night. :doh:

I promptly emailed Jackie of my woes and told him to hold of shipping as I had to dip into my saved money for the fowler to get new tires. No tires, no work, no money. Tires had to come first regardless of how excited I was and there was no way I could expect him to ship without being paid.

Jackie had no issue with that and come August 4th I had sent off the rest of the money to Jackie.

August 7th Jackie shipped my fowler and August 9th it arrived (I was away in Gettysburg with my girlfriend though so I had to wait to enjoy it. The excitement was palpable. :shocked2: )

Yesterday I had the joy of unboxing it and despite his packing method of billions of tiny shredded paper I still managed to not make a TOTAL mess of my house in my excitement to tear it out of there and fondle it.

Here is what I got!
vLcIxre.jpg

d4Kucoc.jpg

GUuaNxh.jpg


I couldn't be more happy with it.

Despite the extended wait time (which I knew going into it that his "quote" was *ahem* a bit of a stretch) I am happy as can be with the final product. Jackie was friendly and prompt with his responses and when he did make a mistake it was no issue for him to make it right immediately and without fuss.

42 inch barrel length and it is nice a light with just enough heft at the end of the barrel to make follow-through smooth and natural without even trying.

The only thing that was not as I requested was the caliber.

I requested 28 gauge and when I just measured it today the bore measures about 5/8ths of an inch with my calipers.

So now, being that I am a complete neophyte at this - I would like to request of anyone their loading recommendations and any other bits of knowledge that you feel may be handy for new-comers to the hobby.
 
From your measurements you got a 20 gauge (.62 cal). That actually makes for a more versatile gun.
In my 20 bore trade gun I have found that 75gr of fffg, a lubed felt wad, a .610 ball and over shot card give me the best accuracy. For shot I use 60 gr of fffg, the same wad,and a 90 gr powder measure full of #5 shot followed by the thin overshot card.
 
Totez, Larry P. is on target IMO. Personally, if that's what that kinda smoothrifle-leaning (to me) fowler is (confirm it's .62 w/Mr. Brown) I'd say you lucked out my friend.

Cool arm one way or t'other...
 
Why does this have a familiar ring?
Oh! You ordered 28 ga. and got a 20.
You ordered a fowler and got an all octagonal barrel, more like a smooth rifle. :doh:
I suggest you put a bore lite down the barrel and look for 'stuff' from the machning process before trying to shoot.
BTW, I ordered a 36" barrel and got a 31". Also many delays and excuses.
For your reading pleasure: http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/260121/post/1029988/hl//fromsearch/1/

Otherwise, I hope it works well for you.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Totez:
:thumbsup: Very nice piece and in my opinion a 20 gauge is a better choice. If your calipers are accurate 5/8 inch is .625, which makes it a 19 gauge. Still a good choice. A 28 gauge would be .550 which is not as versatile. Have fun and keep your flints sharp.

BTW, don't be upset about your thread being moved, happens all the time.
 
The barrel is octagonal to round and tapered. It was as I requested. The 20 gauge is fine because while I had specified 28 gauge I would have eventually gotten a 20 gauge down the line anyways. A mistake I can live with lol

I tried to find the image from TotW but they sold the gun I had sent images of to Jackie to base it on. Sufficed to say the barrel matches the one I showed him.

Despite the delays, it was still a heck of a lot faster than if I had ordered from any other big-name gun builder. I'll happily take the delays and minor issues as long as I have a serviceable gun in a reasonable time that is essentially what I ordered.

Now, if he had sent the original one as shown in the photos of the smoothrifle in the white then I would have a bit more of an issue. Thankfully it was caught before it was shipped.

I did a thorough cleaning of the barrel and it was... well.. pretty gunked up like it was test fired and smelled like hoppes No.9 for some reason but it's sparkling now. I will definitely get a light down there though and check the breech face but I didn't feel any roughness when I was cleaning it.
 
I tried different patched ball loads for mine and got mediocre accuracy. When I tried the more traditional method of bare ball and wads my groups tightened up plus it was easier loading as well so don't dismiss the more traditional ways of loading.
 
in my years I have had several 20 ga. fusils. they are the most useful. I lost the all to a chapter 7 seven years ago. mine would use a 600 rd ball and 12 thou or 10 thou patch. accurate for game out to 75 yards. I now use a 72 cal trade musket. it was had for upland bird and water foul hunting along with hog
 
agree with larryp on his loading....My Mississippi school of ML :grin: (Greg Christian)smooth bore does extremely well with a felt wad over 60gr Ffg goex and felt wad over .600 hand cast ball.I see some improvement with a patched ball but not enough for the hassle out to 60yds so I don't bother.BTW she usually prints a 3" 3 shot group @ 60yrds.good luck and enjoy the journey
 
Now let me get this straight. If I order a 28 ga fowler and get a 20 ga. smoothie instead, it's because I'm a dumbbell and really didn't know what I wanted in the first place.

Right?

If so, then I'll be sure and order one from Jackie Brown when we're both burning in Hell. :shake:
 
Well, Patocazador, if you say so who are we to argue...

I'd say it is more a (my copyrighted, and it is, word) fowlerifle. I think most of us were referring to the OP's (in)experience and what we frankly thought wasn't a bad mistake in his order which, even ignoring re-salability, may actually be a stroke of good luck. Every cloud has its silver lining? Lemons into lemonade, no!? In any case, as for your own order...

...PLEASE HURRY.

; )
 
Fwiw. I happen to like both guns. That you may have gotten a happy accident regarding your bore diameter, time will tell if it's a good or bad thing.

If that smooth rifle is a 20 gauge, that actually is 20 gauge, I'd be interested in taking that "mistake" off his hands if the price were right.
 
I'm not exactly certain what it is you're getting at here - if you're taking a jab at me or what....

I am curious what makes the corrected gun more like a smoothrifle as opposed to a fowler than the very obvious smoothrifle Jackie originally had made before I corrected him. As stated, I am very new at this. I yearn to learn :)

As to the gauge difference from what I ordered as to what I got - while not thrilled that it wasn't as I ordered, I'm not tearing my hair out. I, personally, don't find it as big a deal as others. If I had gotten the obviously-not-what-I-ordered gun that the first three photos show I would have been very upset, however everything seems in order (save the already noted gauge) to my untrained eye.

Please, anyone, do enlighten me!
 
Totez;
Patocazador is mad at Jackie and we who finfd the glass half full. 'cause I'm always so positive and tolerate fools so well, ya know.

My impression is the general profile seems almost as riflish as fowlerish from the pictures to my also-untrained eye.

Why did you go down the 28 guage path by the way?
 
I chose 28 gauge mostly because it was different and to save on lead. I had pretty much no other reason which is why it doesn't really bother me too much about being the wrong gauge lol.
 
I'm just being practical but you already had offers and could probably sell that gun for what it cost tomorrow -- gotta be the most popular general type, it's custom, new, and there's no wait!
 
I'm not in a hurry to sell it. I'm more than happy with what came in the mail. :grin:
 
Definitely no poke at you!
If a customer orders what he wants, then that is what he should get. To me it shows that the maker doesn't really care much what his customers want, it's what he wants to do. In that case he should just make a bunch of rifles/fowlers and sell them as is ... kind of like Wal Mart does.
 
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